Location: West Java

Surprisingly a fool’s gold now; at least this wasn’t the case a few years back for treasure hunter Luc Heymans when he stumbled upon a thousand-year old Spanish vessel shipwreck near the north coast of Cirebon, West Java. Discovered in 2004 along with his team of divers, the site revealed an impressive 271,000 pieces of rubies, pearls, gold jewelry, and various assortments of rock crystals. Also found in the site were Chinese imperial porcelains dating to as early as 976 A.D.

Per Heymans, it is arguably the biggest treasure haul to have ever been found in Asia; only to be matched by the Atocha, another valuable shipwreck that sank near the coast of Florida in 1622.

Although last May 5 proved to be the salvager’s biggest hurdle to date- withstanding his 22,000 dives to bring his bounty to dry land. The much publicized auction for the entire cache of salvaged artifacts failed to garner market interest. The first auction failed to get any bids with speculations that the $16 million initial deposit for the right to bid was too steep for buyers. The director general of supervision Aji Sularso, from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry , said that they will need to evaluate the procedures for the next auction. Also contributing to the poor market response was the apparent short notice of the bid that only gave bidders one week to register.

The failed auction sparked discussions on whether the items, because of its rich heritage, were too valuable to be sold commercially- a sentiment shared not only by academic professionals but also by the royal family of the Cirebon Sultanate.

Despite the hype, a second auction is not seen anytime soon. The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry also estimated there are at least 40 sunken ships with valuable cargo spread across the Indonesian waters.